Caged by Damnation (Caged #2) by J.D. Stroube
DEDICATION
I would like to dedicate this book to Baby Kitty, who passed away December 6, 2012, just shy of turning sixteen years old. I was lucky to have such a devoted friend in my life and took your loss harder than I thought possible. You were ill for many years and though letting you go was the most difficult thing I've ever had to do, it was the right choice. I still look at your picture every day. Luckily your sisters, Crimson and Sienna are here to comfort me and remind me of you. I hope that you're at peace and know that I love you. You will always be my baby girl. XOXO
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank my many proofreaders, who helped me agonize over each section of my book. It is inspiring that each of you reached out your hand to aid me. Thank you to Lee Burton with Ocean's Edge Editingandby: C.J. Pinard [email protected] for editing my manuscript. You're both phenomenal editors and amazing friends. Thanks to Nicole Rae for listening to me read my book over the phone. It helped to have a friend like you supporting me.
PROLOGUE
Savannah's Journal
I live in a world where people pass by one another every day without questioning what horrors the person next to them has been through. Has she lost a loved one? Is he lonely, afraid, incapable of emotion? Is the way he is grasping her hand the strength of their bond, or his domination over her?
Are we selfish if we are more concerned with placing one foot in front of the other, than with a stranger’s fate, in believing that our own destiny should be our focus, rather than saving somebody else from the hands of death?
Lives are filled with trials that overshadow that of others. We don't have time to take stock of a stranger’s life when we concern ourselves with those closest to us. Perhaps it's our excuse, when we ignore the teenager teasing a younger sibling or a husband and wife arguing, that it's none of our business – everything will be better if we stay out of it; we would only make things worse. That is what I used to tell myself.
Somewhere along the path my life has taken, I paused for a few moments to really look at the people around me. It's strange how I noticed the man with the briefcase rushing through a crowd, jolting everyone, and yet didn't consider the ramifications.
A complete stranger has the capacity to alter a person’s life irrevocably, and then that person, the life of a different stranger. This domino effect can change the course of an entire world. That is what life is: a chain reaction of individuals colliding with others, influencing lives without realizing it. A decision that seems miniscule to one person may be monumental to the fate of the world. Is this what fate is, each person's destiny changing repeatedly based on the roads they take and the people they come into contact with?
Fate is the understanding that our vision is flawed, because we have no way of predicting whose choices impact our own. To survive means that one needs to find a route that less follow, a road populated by only yourself and a few companions. The path that is barren of strangers is the one that allows the most freedom, choices, and the possibility of shaping your own destiny.
When I chose to travel my path with Maye, Ash, Willow, and Izzy, I knew that my choices would forever alter theirs. Their worlds would have been far different had I never entered them. Asmodeus wouldn't have been drawn to Izzy and she would still be alive instead of an incorporeal being. Willow would never have had to bring Ash back to life; Death would never have found her – she wouldn't have been faced with the choice between herself and the life of another.
My presence served to pull them beneath the waves, drowning them in the depths of my past. Even knowing that my presence cast a shadow over the lives of my loved ones, I can't regret the experiences I've had with them. They gave me life, becoming integral parts of my soul. They healed me when I was broken and somehow recovered those parts of me I’d thought lost forever. I only wish I could have done the same for them.
CHAPTER 1
Savannah's Journal
The battle with Asmodeus had been painful on more than one emotional plane. Discovering that each tender kiss with Ash and Liam had been a lie was mind blowing, but the realization that my first love was an Archdemon set on killing everyone I loved was unbearable.
I once believed that fate had tossed me into an abyss and forgotten me. I thought I would inevitably succumb to the surrounding darkness. I was wrong. I accepted that relying on a higher being to dictate my life was a betrayal of self. I was born with a soul; I had been given the will to make my own choices. My decision to live had opened up a foreign world.
For weeks after Asmodeus's death, my old journal mocked me. It was a constant reminder of the infection, the emptiness, before I took charge. That journal now resided within a dusty box in the attic.
Memories couldn’t be trusted. I wrote about dating Liam and falling in love with Ash, but those experiences hadn’t been with them, but with Asmodeus. I was once plagued by nightmares of a young girl who’d witnessed tragedies exacted on innocents. Now, I was haunted by memories of a lost love I’d never truly held. I couldn’t walk through my own home without colliding with the physical presence of the man I thought I loved. Ash was a brother to me, but our steady relationship had landed on quaking ground. I trembled with the loss even while I plummeted towards the broken surface.